_Mar. sen_. Augh! will you please to read that again, sir?

_Luck_. "Then hence my sorrow, hence my ev'ry fear."

_Mar. sen_. "Then hence my sorrow."--Horror is a much better word.--And then in the second line--"No matter where, so we are bless'd together."--Undoubtedly, it should be, "No matter where, so somewhere we're together." Where is the question, somewhere is the answer.--Read on, sir.

_Luck_. "With thee,----"

_Mar. sen_. No, no, I could alter those lines to a much better idea.

"With thee, the barren blocks, where not a bit Of human face is painted on the bark, Look green as Covent-garden in the spring."

_Luck_. Green as Covent-garden!

_Mar. jun_. Yes, yes; Covent-garden market, where they sell greens.

_Luck_. Monstrous!

_Mar. sen_. Pray, sir, read on.

_Luck_.

"LEANDRA: oh, my Harmonio, I could hear thee still; The nightingale to thee sings out of tune, While on thy faithful breast my head reclines, The downy pillow's hard; while from thy lips I drink delicious draughts of nectar down, Falernian wines seem bitter to my taste."

_Mar. jun_. Here's meat, drink, singing, and lodging, egad.

_Luck_. He answers.

_Mar. jun_. But, sir----

_Luck_.

"Oh, let me pull thee, press thee to my heart, Thou rising spring of everlasting sweets!

Take notice, Fortune, I forgive thee all!

Thou'st made Leandra mine. Thou flood of joy Mix with my soul, and rush thro' ev'ry vein."

_Mar. sen_. Those two last lines again if you please.

_Luck_. "Thou'st made," &c.

_Mar. jun_.

"----Thou flood of joy, Mix with my soul and rush thro' ev'ry vein."

Those are two excellent lines indeed: I never writ better myself: but, Sar----

_Luck_.

"Leandra's mine, go bid the tongue of fate p.r.o.nounce another word of bliss like that; Search thro' the eastern mines and golden sh.o.r.es, Where lavish Nature pours forth all her stores; For to my lot could all her treasures fall, I would not change Leandra for them all."

There ends act the first, and such an act as, I believe, never was on this stage yet.

_Mar. jun_. Nor never will, I hope.

_Mar. sen_. Pray, sir, let me look at one thing. "Falernian wines seem bitter to my taste."

Pray, sir, what sort of wines may your Falernian be? for I never heard of them before; and I am sure, as I keep the best company, if there had been such sorts of wines, I should have tasted them. Tokay I have drank, and Lacrimas I have drank, but what your Falernian is, the devil take me if I can tell.

_Mar. jun_. I fancy, father, these wines grow at the top of Parna.s.sus.

_Luck_. Do they so, Mr Pert? why then I fancy you have never tasted them.

_Mar. sen_. Suppose you should say the wines of Cape are bitter to my taste.

_Luck_. Sir, I cannot alter it.

_Mar. sen_. Nor we cannot act it. It won't do, sir, and so you need give yourself no farther trouble about it.

_Luck_. What particular fault do you find?

_Mar. jun_. Sar, there's nothing that touches me, nothing that is coercive to my pa.s.sions.

_Luck_. Fare you well, sir: may another play be coercive to your pa.s.sions.

SCENE II.--MARPLAY, senior, MARPLAY, junior.

_Mar. sen_. Ha, ha, ha!

_Mar. jun_. What do you think of the play?

_Mar. sen_. It may be a very good one, for aught I know: but I am resolved, since the town will not receive any of mine, they shall have none from any other. I'll keep them to their old diet.

_Mar. jun_. But suppose they won't feed on't?

_Mar. sen_. Then it shall be crammed down their throats.

_Mar. jun_. I wish, father, you would leave me that art for a legacy, since I am afraid I am like to have no other from you.

_Mar. sen_. 'Tis buff, child, 'tis buff--true Corinthian bra.s.s; and, heaven be praised, tho' I have given thee no gold, I have given thee enough of that, which is the better inheritance of the two. Gold thou might'st have spent, but this is a lasting estate that will stick by thee all thy life.

_Mar. jun_. What shall be done with that farce which was d.a.m.ned last night?